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It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans, life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death—and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it’s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians—frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient—too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified.In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age—say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way”,so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s.These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. Ask a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people’s lives.1.What is implied in the first sentence?2.The author uses the example of cancer patients to show that(  ).3.The author’s attitude toward Richard Lamm’s remark is one of (  ).  4.In contrast to the U.S., Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care (  ).  5.The text intends to express the idea that(  ).

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Does using a word processor affect a writer’s style? The medium usually does do something to the message after all, even if Marshall McLuhan’s claim that the medium simply is the message has been heard and largely forgotten now. The question matters. Ray Hammond, in his excellent guide The Writer and the Word Processor, predicts that over half the professional writers in Britain and the USA will be using word processors by the end of 1985. The best-known recruit is Len Deighton, from as long ago as 1968, though most users have only started since the microcomputer boom began in 1980.Ironically word processing is in some ways psychologically more like writing in rough than typing, since it restores fluidity and provisionally to the text. The typist’s dread of having to get out the tippex, the scissors and paste, or of redoing the whole thing if he has any substantial second thoughts, can make him consistently choose the safer option in his sentences, or let something stand which he knows to be unsatisfactory or incomplete, out of weariness. In word processing the text is loosened up whilst still retaining the advantage of looking formally finished.This has, I think, two apparently contradictory effects. The initial writing can become excessively sloppy and careless, in the expectation that it will be corrected later. That crucial first inspiration is never easy to recapture, though, and therefore, on the other hand, the writing can become over-deliberated, lacking in flow and spontaneity, since revision becomes a large part of composition. However, these are faults easier to detect in others than in oneself. My own experience of the sheer difficulty of committing any words at all to the page means I’m grateful for all the help I can get.For most writers, word processing quite rapidly comes to feel like the ideal method (and can always be a second step after drafting on paper if you prefer). Most of the writers interviewed by Hammond say it has improved their style, (“immensely”,says Deighton). Seeing your own word on a screen helps you to feel cool and detached about them.Thus it is not just by freeing you from the labor of mechanical retyping that a word processor can help you to write. One author (Terence Feely) claims it has increased his output by 400%. Possibly the feeling of having a reactive machine, which appears to do things, rather than just have things done with it, accounts for this—your slave works hard and so do you.Are there no drawbacks? It costs a lot and takes time to learn—“expect to lose weeks of work”,says Hammond, though days might be nearer the mark. Notoriously it is possible to lose work altogether on a word processor, and this happens to everybody at least once. The awareness that what you have written no longer exists anywhere at all, is unbelievably enraging and baffling.Will word processing generally raise the level of professional writing then? Does it make writers better as well as more productive? Though all users insist it has done so for them individually, this is hard to believe. But reliance happens fast.1.What appears to be changing rapidly in Britain and the USA?2.Typing a manuscript in the conventional manner may make a writer(  ).3.One effect of using a word processor may be that the ongoing revision of a text (  ).  4.It is claimed here that word processors create (  ).  5.As far as learning to use a word processor is concerned, the author of the passage feels that Hammond(  ).

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Science is a dominant theme in our culture. Since it touches almost every aspect of our life, educated people need at least some idea of its structure and operation. They should also have an understanding of the subculture in which scientists live and the kinds of people they are. An understanding of general characteristics of science as well as specific scientific concepts is easier to obtain if one knows something about the things that excite and frustrate the scientist.This book is written for the intelligent student or lay person whose knowledge of science is superficial; for the person who has been presented with science as a musty storehouse of dried facts; for the person who sees the chief objective of science as the production of gadgets; and for the person who views the scientists as some sort of magician. The book can be used to supplement a course in any science, to accompany any course that attempts to give an understanding of the modem world, or independently of any course, simply to provide a better understanding of science. We hope this book will lead readers to a broader perspective on scientific attitudes and a more realistic view of what science is, who scientists are, and what they do. It will give them an awareness and understanding of the relationship between science and our culture and an appreciation of the roles science may play in our culture. In addition, readers may learn to appreciate the relationship between scientific views and some of the values and philosophies that are pervasive in our culture.We have tried to present in this book an accurate and up-to-date picture of the scientific community and the people who populate it. That population has in recent years come to consist of more and more women. This increasing role of women in the scientific subculture is not a unique incident but, rather, part of the trend evident in all parts of society as more women enter traditionally male-dominated fields and make significant contributions. In discussing these changes and contribution, however, we are faced with a language that is somewhat sexist, one that uses male nouns or pronouns in referring to unspecified individuals. To balance this built-in bias, we have adopted the policy of using plural nouns and pronouns whenever possible and, when absolutely necessary, alternating him and her. This policy is far from being ideal, but it is at least an acknowledgement of the inadequacy of our language in treating half of the human race equally.We have also tried to make the book entertaining as well as informative. Our approach is usually informal. We feel, as many other scientists do, that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. As the reader may observe, we see science as a delightful pastime rather than as a grim and dreary way to earn a living.1.According to the passage, “scientific subculture” means(  ).2.We need to know something about the structure and operation of science because (  ).  3.The book mentioned in this passage is written for readers who (  ).  4.According to this passage, which of the following is true?5.The text most probably is(  ).

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The prefix Mach is used to describe supersonic speed. It was named for Ernst Mach (1838-1916), a Czech-born Austrian physicist, who contributed to the study of sound. When twice the speed of sound, it is Mach 2. When it is near but below the speed of sound, its speed can be designated at less than Mach 1, for example, Mach 0.9. Mach is defined as “the ratio of the velocity of a rocket or a jet to the velocity of sound in the medium being considered.”When a plane passes the sound barrier—flying faster than sound travels—listeners in the area hear thunderclaps, but the pilot of the plane does not hear them.Sound is produced by vibrations of an object and is transmitted by alternate increase and decrease in pressure that radiate outward through a material media of molecules—somewhat like waves spreading out on a pond after a rock has been tossed into it.The frequency of sound is determined by the number of times the vibrating waves undulate(波动)per second and is measured in cycles per second. The slower the cycle of waves, the lower the frequency. As frequencies increase, the sound is higher in pitch.Sound is audible to human beings only if the frequency falls within a certain range. The human ear is usually not sensitive to frequencies of fewer than 20 vibrations per second, or more than about 20,000 vibrations per second—although this range varies among individuals. Anything at a pitch higher than the human ear can hear is termed ultrasonic.Intensity, or loudness, is the strength of the pressure of these radiating waves and is measured in decibels. The human ear responds to intensity in a range from zero to 120 decibels. Any sound with pressure over 120 decibels is painful to the human ear.The speed of sound is generally placed at 1.088 feet per second at sea level at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It varies in other temperatures and in different media. Sound travels faster in water than in air, and even faster in iron and steel. It travels a mile in 5 seconds in air, it does a mile under water in 1 second, and it travels through iron in 1/3 second. It travels through ice cold vapor at approximately 4,708 feet per second; ice-cold water, 4,938; granite, 12,960; hardwood, 12,620; brick, 11,960; glass, 16,410 to 19,690; silver, 8,658; gold, 5,717.1.According to this passage, “Mach” refers to(  ).2.Sound is produced by (  ).  3.Decibel is (  ).  4.Which of the following is a TRUE statement?5.Which of the following can serve as the best title of this passage?

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